Duck and Cover!
by Bunny-chan19
Summary: UPDATED! Dec. 203 Mamorus P.O.V. -- It's Christmas and Mamoru is doing his best to out-grump scrooge until it passes. However, Matoki and mistletoe equal a not so quite x-mas season! Better watch out Mamoru!
1. Default Chapter

It's only the middle of November, but I've already had my  
  
Christmas music playing for the last 3 weeks. I'm sure that my dorm   
  
mates thought that I was crazy... Anyways, here's a little Christmas  
  
ficlett for you, dear readers.  
  
Notes about the story: In Japan, Chrismas isn't a big religious deal  
  
for most people, so, although I'm a Christian, I won't be making that a  
  
big theme in this story. Christmas is more of a time to spend with your  
  
boy or girlfriend.  
  
*standard 'this doesn't belong to me' disclaimer here*  
  
"Duck and Cover"  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Bunny19  
  
This was the time of year that I most hated. It was cold; that  
  
in itself being enough to get to me, but not only that, there were   
  
decorations hanging in store windows, busy people shoving each other   
  
around in order to get the 'best' of whatever was the marketed 'must   
  
have' for the year, and that Star Wars movie doesn't have anything on   
  
the attack of the clones that's hit Tokyo. There's a man in red and  
  
white jiggling his belly on every other corner. That's something that I  
  
never understood. The whole 'santa' story. It must have been brought  
  
over from America or something. Yes, it was Christmas, and I, Mamoru  
  
Chiba, was doing my best to out-grouch Scrouge until it passed.  
  
One might ask why I had such a dislike of this season. Well,   
  
it's really quite simple. Every year, my supposed friend, Matoki, tries  
  
to catch me under the mistletoe with a girl. He thinks that I'll some-  
  
how meet a girl, and, after 'love's first kiss', I'll discover that  
  
she's my dream girl. Then we'll go off and date and get married and  
  
have 2.3 kids; I believe that's the average in Japan these days.  
  
Yes, Matoki has grown tired of watching me mope around, as he  
  
puts it it, every year as I watch the 'happy couples' walk hand in hand  
  
down the streets, snow softly falling around them. Mope? Me? Never.   
  
It's true that, although I'm ruggedly handsome-- no, I'm not  
  
bragging, people have said that about me!--, I haven't had a steady   
  
girlfriend in about a million years. That's right, sad, isn't it?  
  
Anyways, this year would be no different, I was sure, and I was  
  
determined not to be caught. I'd done it for the past 3 years, one more  
  
should be no trouble. So far I hadn't seen any sign of the poisonous   
  
green and white plant; no sigh of bright red berries, maybe Matoki had  
  
forgotten to buy mistletoe this year? As I drew nearer to the Crown  
  
Game Center, my eyes narrowed and began to check out every nook and   
  
cranny for plantlife. None were to be found, so I cautiously stepped  
  
through the slidding doors of the arcade.  
  
Warning! Warning! BEEP BEEP BEEP!!! I had spotted a small clump  
  
of mistletoe hanging above me. I lept forward, just barely managing to  
  
avoid colliding with the girl Matoki was pushing forward, with the aim  
  
of her landing in my arms. I threw my arms in the air and exicuted a  
  
graceful spin, rather top-like, and ended up piroetting around to behind   
  
Matoki; the girl and himself smashing into the glass doors.  
  
'Heh. Serves you right.' I smirked, as I walked to the counter,   
  
keeping a lookout for any more of the deadly Christmas vegetation. Man,  
  
he wasn't missing a beat this year. I shook my head and turned to order  
  
a coffee from Matoki's sister. At the moment, however, she was laughing  
  
too hard at me to write the order down,   
  
"Wow, Mamoru-san, you're getting better!" More giggles.  
  
"He's *your* brother," I grumbled as I plunked myself down on a  
  
stool, "You could, at least, try to talk some sense into him!"   
  
"No way! It's much more fun watching you guys every year!" She   
  
laughed.  
  
"Coffee. Black. Smartie-pants." I growled as I watched Matoki   
  
give the girl a quick peck on the lips; they were, after all, under the  
  
mistletoe. The girl sighed, a blush on her cheeks, as she stumbled in a  
  
love-struck daze, out the doors.   
  
A lot of girls were in love with him. I could understand. My  
  
best friend did have looks, charm, and a great personality going for  
  
him. However, what would his current girlfriend, and long-time love,  
  
Rika think of him kissing other girls? Actually, I was pretty sure that  
  
it was all harmless. Matoki was head over heels in love with Rika, and  
  
their devotion to each other was not to be rivled.  
  
Going into the arcade was more like signing a death warrent,   
  
then relaxing, this time of year. I wondered why I was here. The bells  
  
jangled again and more laughing and good natured banter reached my  
  
ears. Usagi and crew had just entered.  
  
I glared into my coffee. They were all cheerful and happy. It   
  
wasn't fair. They all probably had boyfriends that showered them with   
  
gifts, and other such romantic stuff, this time of year. I tried,   
  
unsuccessfully, to ignore them and drink the brew, which Lizzy had   
  
brought with a smirking comment of:  
  
"I'm sure there's no mistletoe mixed into it, Mamoru-san."  
  
Women. They are the ban of men's existance.  
  
I took another sip of the bitter liquid and listened to the   
  
conversations of those around me.  
  
Usagi slid into their regular booth, beside Minako; Makoto  
  
sitting on her other side, and Rei and Ami sitting across from them. It  
  
had begun to snow again outside; big fat flakes. They shimmered in the  
  
soft glow of street lights. Somewhere in the room a watch beeped 7   
  
o'clock. The girls ordered hot cocco's and began to take off their  
  
winter coats and gloves.   
  
"So, Christmas is in 3 days, do you girls have anything special  
  
planned?" Minako asked, as she untied the long white and green striped  
  
scarf around her neck, and shook out her hair.  
  
Rei smiled as she laid her black leather gloves on the table.   
  
  
  
"Chad and I are going to have dinner together, then I guess   
  
we'll go back to the temple and open gifts with Grampa. You girls are   
  
all invited to come, of course. We'll have lots of treats and, besides,   
  
you're practically family!"   
  
She blushed slightly. That was a big statement of friendship   
  
for her to make. Rei was normally withdrawn in the subject of family,   
  
considering her father had left when she was young and her mother   
  
had died when she was small too.  
  
"What about you, Makoto?" Usagi asked, turning to the tall girl  
  
sitting beside her. "Are you and Ken doing anything special?"  
  
"I don't know, we haven't really talked about anything." the   
  
tall girl replied as she shrugged out of her coat.  
  
Matoki appeared a moment later, and slid into the booth beside  
  
Rei, as he set his tray of coccoa on the table. The steaming cups of  
  
chocolate were quickly taken up and the blond man's eyes sparkled as he  
  
nodded his head at Mamoru's hunched over form on the stool in front of  
  
the counter, across the room. He sighed in a 'dejected' way,  
  
"He gets faster every year."  
  
"Nearly got him that time, ne Matoki-kun?" Rei smirked.  
  
"Why do you guys torture him like that?" Usgai put in, and   
  
immediatly added, upon several intense 'why do you care' stares, "I  
  
mean, if you're going to do something, you should at least put some  
  
thought into it." Then she quickly picked up her hot coccoa with both  
  
hands and took a long sip.  
  
"And I suppose that *you* have better ideas, Odango?" Rei said,  
  
with a lifted eyebrow.  
  
"Of course I do. Who has spent nearly half her life arguing  
  
with the pig-headed man who practically lives in that horendous green   
  
jacket?" Usagi snapped back, setting her mug down and staring Rie   
  
straight in the eyes.  
  
Rei glanced away, "Whatever Odango, spill, if you have a decent  
  
idea for once!"  
  
"Listen up..." Usagi began, and 5 heads leaned in to the middle  
  
of the table as she whispered her plan.  
  
They were conspiering against me, I just knew it. Especially   
  
Matoki. He was drawing Usagi and her scatterbrained friends into his  
  
plot. Did he think that just because the girls were in high school that  
  
I would let my guard down? Not a chance! I finished up my coffee and   
  
prepared to leave, tying my scarf around my neck and pulling on my new,  
  
black, leather gloves. I stood, and buttoning my coat, walked across   
  
the room toward the door, keeping an eye on the chattering table in the  
  
corner.   
  
A few exclaimations reached my ears as the girls occasionaly  
  
cried out: "That's crazy!" "Yeah, that might work." and "I don't think  
  
that this is a good idea." Ah, Ami-chan, I always did like that girl. I  
  
hoped that she would talk Matoki out of this hopeless stunt. There was  
  
no way that I was going to fall into his trap. Women were nothing but  
  
trouble. 


	2. Duck and Cover Part 2

Hi all! Sorry that I made you wait for so long...I guess I'm not going to do  
  
better than 15 reviews on chapter one (so sad...) so I'm giving in and sending  
  
in chapter two for all you lovely people! ^_^  
  
I'm recently keenly interesting in Harry Potter. I know, either you're going  
  
to hate me because it's 'sinful' (I am a Christian btw) or love me because  
  
you love it too, so I want to take the time here to advertise an increadable  
  
piece of fanfiction that I'm currently reading.   
  
It's on fanfiction.net too and is written by a girl called "Just Like Hermione".   
  
It's called: "Harry Potter And the Truest Power" and is currently longer than   
  
the "Order of the Phoenix"! It's such a well written story! Wow! If I hadn't   
  
known better, I would have thought that J.K. Rowling wrote it herself! It's   
  
on my fave. stories list, so check it out! Dont forget to tell her Bunny-chan19   
  
sent ya! hee. ^^  
  
Ok...on to the story!  
  
Rating: PG-13 for extremely mild cursing.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
I had watched the group talking for only a few minutes when I spied Matoki   
  
looking over at me. He grinned sinisterly at me before turning back to the   
  
girls. Great. He's got some new plan. Well it was sure to be pretty easy to   
  
figure out if he was working together with Odango-head over there. Speaking   
  
of the little minx, she was currently giving Matoki one of her angelic-looking   
  
smiles. Then she turned to Minako and the two blonds put their heads together   
  
wispering excitedly in the corner. Suddenly Rei leaned forward and said some-  
  
thing in a low voice that evoked a rather loud response from Usagi.  
  
"What! No Way Rei! You have *got* to be joking!"   
  
A soft flush had bloomed on her cheeks as soon as Rei had finished speaking  
  
and she was doing her best to glare at her friend who was giving her some-  
  
what of a triumphat look while she folded her arms and leaned back against  
  
backrest of their booth.  
  
Seconds later Matoki stepped in and shushed Usagi, shooting a glance my way.  
  
I ignored them. Whatever it was that had upset Odango wasn't my problem. The  
  
group continued to speak for a few more minutes and then Matoki returned to  
  
the counter to ofter me a refill of coffee; an annoyingly smug look on his  
  
face. As he topped off my mug I raised an eyebrow at him.  
  
"So Matoki, ran out of ideas and had to conspire with a few high schoolers  
  
did you? I hope you realize that whatever notions she put into your head  
  
about romance are merely childish fantesies and that this whole plan will be  
  
a complete flop."  
  
Matoki let me rant all the while grinning at me with that same stupid grin  
  
that he had been wearing while talking with the girls; one that said he was  
  
one up on me and I wouldn't know what hit me until it knocked me nine-ways  
  
from Sunday. That irked me.  
  
"You know Mamoru, you really are too hard on her."  
  
Of course he knew which girl I was talking about. I couldn't help myself.   
  
Something about the odango-haired girl, who I had some uncanny knack for   
  
running into at least once at day, got under my skin. Of course it wasn't  
  
because I *wanted* her to, she just...did. Must be something in the air.  
  
"Define 'too hard' Matoki. That girl lives to make make my life a living--"  
  
"She says the same about you, you know. Quite often in fact." Matoki   
  
interrupted me. "They say opposites attract, you never know Mamoru...."   
  
He let the sentence trail off.   
  
I glanced over at the booth in the corner where Usagi was taking a sip of  
  
her hot chocolate. Makoto made a joke of some kind and Usagi began to laugh  
  
again. Her laugh, it was so...sweet...and innocent. Like something that just  
  
refused to grow old. Rei added her two bits and Usagi fired some rare   
  
intellegent quip back causing Ami and Makoto to laugh and Rei to give her an   
  
indignant stare. Seconds later the traditional tongue war began. Something   
  
drew my gaze to a certain pair of soft, pink, lips and the accompanying   
  
tantalizing flashes of tongue. I quickly tore my eyes away and all but   
  
dropped my cup in my haste to set it on the counter. What *was* I just   
  
thinking about?! Must be something in the coffee. I suddenly wasn't thirsty  
  
anymore.  
  
Matoki saw everything that took place in the few seconds in which his friend  
  
spent looking at the table of gossiping teens in the corner but bit his own  
  
tongue and said nothing. He silently wiped up the spill Mamoru had made and  
  
pretended that he had been busy with the coffee pot; facing the other way by  
  
the time Mamoru turned back. He knew what was going on even if his best   
  
friend was refusing to admit it, and he was determined to force Mamoru to  
  
admit it to himself if it was the last thing he did.  
  
"Not likely, Matoki." I muttered, more under my breath then actually to him,   
  
but my blond friend had the grace, or the bad-hearing, to pretend not to   
  
have heard anything.  
  
I knew that Matoki had been watching me closely during this short  
  
encounter and I knew what he was thinking. However, there was no way I was  
  
going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that something had rattled me.  
  
I threw some money on the counter for my drink and made for the slidding   
  
doors of the arcade; still keeping a sharp lookout for the smallest *hint*  
  
of anything that reproduced using photosynthasis. Matoki was good...but I   
  
was going to show him that I was better.  
  
*****  
  
A week had passed and Matoki had suddenly ceased pulling any type of x-mas  
  
prank on me. For the normal man this would have been a releif. For me, *I*  
  
was doubly suspicious. Seconds later something pink and white and shrieking  
  
loud enough to wake the dead came wizzing toward me full speed.  
  
"Eyaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!" Shrieked the aformentioned thing, which turned out to  
  
be a person with long trails of blond hair streaming out behind her, as she  
  
skidded on a hidden patch of ice and crashed into Mamoru.  
  
I threw my arms around the girl instinctively, as she slammed into me full   
  
speed, drawing her close against my body and tightening my arms around her  
  
small form as I suddenly found myself loosing my own footing and we both   
  
crashed unceremoniously onto the snowy sidewalk.   
  
The creature I had cradled in my arms now lay on my chest, and as for me, I  
  
was laying on my back, a nasty bump prodding the back of my head. A squeek   
  
signaled that the girl had realized her own comprimising postion and she  
  
suddenly began to struggle to untangle herself.   
  
As Usagi raised herself off the man she flushed deeply. It was Mamoru! Just  
  
her luck.   
  
"Ohmigod! Mamoru-baka! Why didn't you get out of my way! Are you alright?"  
  
she cried, bending forward and peering into the dazed eyes of one confused  
  
raven-haired man with concern.  
  
Pushing myself up to a sitting position I blinked at Usagi, who was still  
  
straddling my legs and now clutching at the front of my winter coat with two  
  
light pink gloved hands. She wore a white jacket and a matching pink whool   
  
headband over her ears. Her long blond ponytails were spilling over her   
  
shoulders and across my legs and the surrouding sidewalk. Her face was only  
  
inches from mine.   
  
"Hey Chiba! Did you freeze your tongue to the sidewalk or someting? Are you  
  
alright?" Usagi demanded, giving the man in front of her a shake. A sudden  
  
memory of Matoki and the girl careening toward him in the arcade flashed   
  
through my mind then and I quickly extracted myself from under Usagi and  
  
jumped to my feet; causing her to fall into a somewhat crab-like postion.  
  
"What's the--" She sputtered as I all but shoved her off of me. Still, as I  
  
did it I had the strangest urge to hold back; hold on to her. Somehow when  
  
she was in my arms I didn't want to let her go. Usagi was blinking up at me  
  
from her position in the dirty snow of the sidewalk and giving me an equally  
  
strange look. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and absently held out a   
  
hand to help her to her feet, muttering 'sorry' as she raised an eyebrow at   
  
me and allowed me to pull her up. I must be over-reacting. Surely Matoki   
  
hadn't sent Usagi to-- I quicky cut that thought off. He wouldn't be that   
  
cruel as to attempt to get his best friend's attention with the most annoying  
  
...childish...beautiful enemy-- there I went again. Usagi was speaking then.  
  
"I--I'm sorry I ran into you." Usagi managed to get out as Mamoru's strong  
  
fingers closed over her gloved hand and helped pull her to a standing  
  
position. He was helping her? After she had just bowled him over? He sure   
  
was acting queer. "But I--"  
  
"Whatever...Odango. The sidewalks are slippery. I don't know what you and my  
  
supposed best friend are planning but stay away from me before you get me killed,  
  
or worse!" I fired at her, each word carefully calculated for maximum effect.  
  
There was no way she was going to get to me. I cast my eyes around for the  
  
mistletoe that was sure to be hanging somewhere above me.   
  
"Where is it?" I demanded, looking into her eye and having a sudden start.  
  
Usagi was looking at me with what was first shock and then...tears? She was   
  
crying? Why on earth would she be--?  
  
"Where is *what*, you arrogant jerk!" she shot back.  
  
"Why are you crying?" I sighed, frustrated that she was denying everything.   
  
She obviously was in legue with Matoki, there was no other explination.  
  
"Why are you such an asshole?!" she threw back at me rather angrily, before   
  
turning and brushing past me with a non-too-innocent elbow jab in my side as  
  
she went.  
  
What was *her* problem? Lately Usagi had been taking offence to practically  
  
everything I so much as *breathed* on. And as for me, I was so confused about  
  
my feelings for her that I didn't know how to act. She was an annoying little  
  
high school prat-- who I found caused my day to be suddenly 'empty' if I   
  
happened to miss our regular run-ins for some stroke of what I used to consider  
  
'luck'. Watching her stalk down the street, nearly loosing her balance once or  
  
twice and catching it just barely in time before she continued her haughty  
  
tirade down the road, I noticed an envolope laying on the ground.   
  
Picking it up, I inspected the neat characters printed on the front. Wait,   
  
those weren't just any charcters, it was a name. *My* name. I glanced back up  
  
the street but Usagi had already disapeared into the crowd. Shaking my head, I  
  
walked over to a bench near a bus shelter and sat down while slitting open the  
  
envelope. It contained an invatation for a Christmas party at the Temple that  
  
one of Usagi's friends, Rei Hino's, grandfather owned. The card read that a party  
  
was to be held there on December 24th and and that he was to come for 8pm and  
  
bring a small gift for a gift exchange.   
  
This card wouldn't have been so unusual because he and Rei had had what she  
  
would call a relationship, and *he* would call hanging out with a cute high  
  
school girl who he liked on a friendly basis, for a while, except that Usagi  
  
had dropped it. Why had she had it? Maybe Rei had simply asked her to give it  
  
to him because she was too shy, after all she had her school-girl ideals about  
  
romance and asking the guy you liked to your party was bound to make even the  
  
supposedly boldest girl somewhat shy, or maybe she knew that Usagi ran into  
  
him, on purpose or not, so often that she was more likely to see him before Rei  
  
did? Either way I was suddenly feeling not a small amount of guilt for the way  
  
that I had treated Usagi ealier. Well, I would apologize somehow when I saw her  
  
next. For now, I had a present or two to buy.  
  
***** 


End file.
